Tuesday, 1 December 2015

Exhibition period of 'New M5 WestConnex' EIS must be extended

After the
NSW Government waited for Parliament to rise before releasing the ‘New M5 WestConnex’ Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), I have written to the Minister for Planning, Rob
Stokes MP, who under part 5.1 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act
1979 has carriage of the EIS consultation phase, to request an extension.

I have for months been requesting detailed studies about the impact of flow on
traffic from the Minister for Roads Duncan Gay[1]
and I now demand that the Government allocates sufficient time for local
Councils to do the work that questionable engineering firm AECOM[2]
and the Government failed to do in the EIS.

The EIS
released by the Government on Friday does not contain any detailed long term
traffic studies of the flow on impact of traffic emerging from the St Peters
interchange into the suburbs of Mascot, Eastlakes, Kensington, Kingsford,
Erskineville and Alexandria, not to mention other areas, such as to the inner
city or to the east.

The EIS for
instance mentions the widening of Euston Road to six lanes, but does not study
the impact that those six lanes worth of additional traffic will have on
suburban roads. It doesn’t consider the impact of traffic from the 60,000 new
residences in the Green Square Precinct, the University of NSW traffic or even
airport traffic.

They’re
attempting to bury the EIS under a pile of Christmas wrap and fireworks.

The timing
of this report makes the Government’s desire to avoid scrutiny plain as day. Apart from
confirming our worst suspicions of this project, the EIS has raised serious
questions about the viability of this project.

The
Government must extend the exhibition period to allow for detailed analysis by
Councils, town planners, traffic engineers and residents. Ultimately
the least the Government could do is give people in our Councils, with
meaningful qualifications and experience the time necessary to submit a
substantive response.

This is
what happens when a Government outsources its responsibilities to investment
bankers. The WestConnex will be a catastrophe for our local roads. You can download a copy of my letter to the Minister here.

About Ron Hoenig

Ron Hoenig MP is the State Member for Heffron in the NSW Parliament.
He was elected to Parliament at a by-election on the 25 August 2012.
Prior to entering Parliament he was the Mayor of the City of Botany Bay, a position he held for more than 30 years. He was, and still is regarded by many as one of the most progressive Mayors in the Sydney metropolitan region.
He is a barrister and prior to entering parliament was a Public Defender for the State of New South Wales.
Ron Hoenig was born in Sydney and raised in Eastlakes, attending Eastlakes Public School, Daceyville Public School and The J.J. Cahill Memorial High School in Mascot.